The present invention generally relates to imaging systems, and more particularly to an imaging system and network having a media stack component measuring system and method for identifying media stack characteristics.
Generally, an image forming system or device is a device which produces or affixes an image to media. The image may represent text, numeric, graphic, photographic or similar data, or a combination of these. The media is most often in the form of paper sheets, transparency sheets, or photo sensitive sheets arranged in a stack within a supply or media holder (e.g., a paper tray) and are usually drawn for imaging from the media holder a single sheet at a time.
Known media supply sensors and indicators are used to notify an operator that there is a need for replenishing of the media supply. For example, one known mechanical indicator uses a simple lever mechanism to indicate the media level within the supply holder. Electro-mechanical and optical sensors have also been used to indicate a xe2x80x9cpaper outxe2x80x9d condition to the print engine or print controller of the image forming device. These sensors or transducers have also been used to provide a rough approximation of the supply level to the print engine. Only rough approximations have been possible due to the diversity of media types and their inherent characteristics, such as cut paper tolerances, ragged edges, media type, manufacturing and cutting techniques, etc.
Increased abilities of image forming devices to print various quality and specialty images sometimes require that the printing process be tuned to specific media types. Most often, and especially in network printing environments, a user will elect to manually feed the specialized media as opposed to printing from the regular supply tray. This is caused by the fact that there is no known way of insuring that the proper media is present in sufficient quantities in the supply tray. Image forming devices often assume that a specific media is being used when in fact it is not, resulting in an inferior product. Often printing parameters such as toner/ink concentrations, paths speed, fuser temperature and drive torks are altered to optimize printing of specialized images. Hence, using the wrong media can produce inferior results and even damage the image forming device.
In a business printing environment, large print jobs (e.g., 500 sheets) may not be printed during a work day since they tie up the office printer. Officer personnel may start the print job at the end of the day and go home, only to come back the next day and find out that only 30 pages were printed due to an insufficient amount of sheet media in the printer.
Additionally, documents or print jobs may be ordered via a network on a xe2x80x9cpay for servicesxe2x80x9d basis. The document is paid for at the time it is ordered. Once the document is ordered, it is downloaded to a printer via the network. Before the printer starts to print the document, a user must make sure the printer has enough sheet media to avoid printing only half of the document and paying for all of it. Once a print job is ordered, it would also be desirable to be assured that the printer media holder contains the correct media and optimized printer settings for the print job.
In a secure printing environment, it may be desirable for a user to know that enough media exists in the media holder to print the print job. A user may not realize that only half the print job was printed. As such, once additional media is added to the media holder, the print job may continue printing from printer memory providing access to restricted or confidential documents by a subsequent user.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a imaging system capable of providing detailed information about the quantity and type of media in the media holder.
The present invention provides an imaging system and method having a media stack component measuring system for identifying media characteristics. The imaging system includes a printer engine. A printer control system is in communication with the printer engine. A media holder is provided for holding a media stack including a plurality of sheets. A media stack component sensing system is provided which provides an output signal having a thickness component representative of sheet thickness of the sheets in the media stack.